


Maybe One Day I'll Live In La Jolla

by Anonymous



Series: Anon Sea's MCYT Works [1]
Category: Real Person Fiction
Genre: 5+1 Things, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluffy Ending, Happy Ending, Light Angst, Moving Out, Protective Wilbur Soot, Reconciliation, Repairing Friendships, Strained Friendships, Toby Smith | Tubbo Angst, TommyInnit Angst (Video Blogging RPF), Very Very Light Angst, Wordcount: 10.000-30.000, Wordcount: Over 10.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:53:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29764062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: When Tubbo bags on his and Tommy's plan to get a flat in Brighton together, Wilbur offers for Tommy to move to La Jolla with him. They have two problems, though:1. Tubbo still thinks Tommy is moving to Brighton so they'll be nearby2. Wilbur and Tommy haven't told anybody they've moved in together.This, of course, leads to some shenanigans.AKAFive times people accidentally found out about Tommy and Wilbur being roommates, and one time they told everybody.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Series: Anon Sea's MCYT Works [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2187582
Comments: 30
Kudos: 421
Collections: Anonymous





	Maybe One Day I'll Live In La Jolla

**Author's Note:**

> Before this starts, I'd like to say that I know Tommy isn't jealous of Tubbo and Ranboo's friendship! I know the whole jealousy thing is just a bit and it's honestly pretty funny. This fan fiction isn't meant to represent reality, but is rather an exploration of strained friendships, mistakes, and reconciliation. When Tommy said on his chill stream that he and Tubbo aren't planning on moving in together, despite the fact that the two have been saying they're going to do it before months, my little gremlin brain came up with this idea.
> 
> That being said, enjoy this fictional work!

Tommy wasn’t angry. Truly, he wasn’t mad in the slightest. In fact, he couldn’t find it within himself to feel enraged or frustrated or anything of the things he was supposed to feel in this situation. Instead, he was tired, completely drained, emotionally worn down to the point of near apathy if not for the little bit of sadness bubbling under the surface.

How else was he supposed to react?

Tommy and Tubbo had been planning their move to Brighton for a while. Once the two were out of college, they’d get an apartment together and live out their gamer lifestyles, likely consisting of many late nights and an outrageous amount of takeout. It had been one of the things Tommy had been looking forward to for over a year, though no plans were set in stone. It was a promise of a new era of his life, away from home and living with his best friend.

Of course, nothing quite goes to plan.

Over the months since Tommy turned seventeen, he could feel himself drifting away from Tubbo, their friendship still strong, just not as strong as before. They never seemed to stream anymore, arcs not overlapping as much as they used to and sleeping schedules differing. While Tubbo still showed up in his Minecraft Mod videos, his appearances on the channel had become less and less frequent. Late night phone calls and constant text messaging seemed to dwindle, silence between them as they didn’t talk for days on end, though continued to reply to each other on Twitter.

In his place, Tommy noticed Ranboo becoming close with Tubbo. The two were always on each other’s streams and were quick to talk about their late night facetime calls. Tubbo was even the first person on the SMP to get to see Ranboo’s face! The two older teens grew ever closer, leaning into the platonic affection Tommy felt himself always unable to give, and quickly became a fan favorite duo.

Tommy, despite the empty space that Tubbo used to occupy, didn’t blame Ranboo in the slightest. The teen knew that friendships grew stronger and drifted with time, and it just so happened that Ranboo and Tubbo meshed really well at a time where Tommy was beginning to drift away from his best friend. He didn’t blame the two boys for growing so close, it was just natural. And it wasn’t as if they excluded him all the time𑁋 Tommy was included in plenty of their shenanigans! It was just a little third-wheel-like for him.

So, Tommy wasn’t upset that the two had grown closer, nor was he angry about it. He was just excited for the day he moved in with his best friend and grew a bit closer with him. It seemed, however, that fate had much different plans for him, as he found out on a call one day with Tubbo.

“We should start looking for apartments in Brighton,” Tommy mentioned offhandedly, though he could feel a bit of excitement lighting up his heart. “I mean, it’s only a few months until the semester ends and we were planning on moving in the summer, right?”

He was met with silence on the other end and his heart sunk.

“Um . . . about that, Tommy,” Tubbo started and the blond could feel the hesitance in his friend’s voice. “I was actually thinking that we maybe . . . shouldn’t move in together?”

Tommy’s breath hitched and he prayed that Tubbo hadn’t been able to hear the sound. Before he could respond, his brunet friend spoke up again.

“I think we should still both move to Brighton!” he amended quickly. “It’d be super cool to live in the same city and be nearby, but . . . Ranboo and I have been super close lately and he had been seriously considering moving to England and we kinda, sorta, made plans to move in together?”

It was phrased like a question, but Tommy could tell that it was a done deal.

“You and I are friends, but we just haven’t been as close in the past year and I don’t know if either of us would particularly enjoy living together.” The hesitance in Tubbo’s voice had faded away and now he just sounded apologetic. “I . . . I’m sorry, Toms.”

Tommy just felt numb as he realized that his one solid plan, the future he’d been looking forward to for such a long time, was stripped away from him only months before it was a reality. It didn’t feel real to him.

“Don’t worry about it, Tubs,” Tommy replied in a rush after realizing he’d been quiet for a little too long. “It’s probably for the best and I’m sure you and Ranboo will have a super fun time living together. Plus, I can always come visit you.”

Tubbo responded enthusiastically and the two went back to doing whatever they had been doing individually, neither attempting to make even the slightest bit of small talk.

~

Tommy groaned as his phone began to vibrate on his bedside table. For a moment, he considered rolling over and declining the call, but found himself lacking the energy to do so. Instead, he just laid there, facing the wall and waiting until it stopped buzzing. Just his luck, the moment it went still, it began buzzing again.

With a huff, he rolled over, kicking his legs against the tangled sheets, and picked up his phone, squinting at the bright screen that was nearly blinding in the darkness of his bedroom. He sighed as he saw that the person calling him was Wilbur, and not even over Discord. It was a regular phone call, which the man only ever did when it was serious. For a moment, he genuinely considered just letting the call go to voicemail again, but guilt gnawed at his stomach as he thought about worrying the man he saw as an older brother. Resigned, he accepted the call.

“What do you want?” Tommy grumbled, collapsing against his pillows and staring up at the ceiling as he put the call into speaker mode and set his phone on the sheets.

“Are you okay?” Wilbur questioned, voice panicked. Confusion twisted in Tommy’s chest as he wondered why his friend was so concerned.

“I’m fine, why?”

Wilbur sighed, and Tommy could just imagine the irritation on his face.

“You haven’t talked to anybody in ages. You’ve been completely silent on the server, you haven’t streamed at all, you won’t talk to anybody, and Phil said you only tweeted to announce a new video and then dipped completely!” Wilbur’s tone grew more and more concerned as he continued his list.

“Well, I’m  _ fine,”  _ muttered Tommy, feeling over the conversation. “I’ll be back at it soon.”

“You’re obviously not fine!” Wilbur exclaimed. “I’m concerned about you.”

Tommy couldn’t help the warmth that grew in his chest at the fact that his older brother figure was worried about him. Perhaps he was a bit eager for validation after how shit his week had been, but he would take any attention and care people were willing to give him.

With the confirmation that Wilbur was concerned, Tommy finally relented. “Past few days have just been kinda shit.”

Wilbur hummed in understanding. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

Tommy considered for a moment, unsure if he wanted to dump everything on his friend. After all, Wilbur had been busy vlogging his roadtrip across the United States with Jack Manifold, and Tommy didn’t want to add more stress onto the man’s shoulders. On the other hand, though, Tommy just wanted to get everything off of his chest. He wanted somebody to validate the hurt he had been feeling, to say that it was a reasonable reaction and he wasn’t just being overdramatic.

“You know that plan Tubbo and I have had for a couple years to move in together when we’re finished with college?” Tommy asked, prompting Wilbur to give a small ‘mhm’ in confirmation. “He scrapped the plan.”

Both ends of the call were quiet for a moment.

“I . . . what?” Wilbur finally reacted, and Tommy was taken aback by the mix of anxiety and mild horror in his tone.

“He’s still moving to Brighton, even said I should move there too so we can be close together, but apparently Ranboo had been working on moving to England and the two are going to get a flat together,” Tommy explained, his monotone voice so starkly contrasting his normal tone.

“I know you too haven’t been as close lately, but it’s kinda shit of him just to leave you hanging like that, especially when you were expecting to move in with him in just a few months,” Wilbur told him, tone steady and hiding a bit of disappointment.

“So you don’t think I’m overreacting?”

“Not at all! It’s completely valid for you to be upset about this!”

Tommy let out a shuddering breath, feeling as though a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. Wilbur,  _ his brother,  _ agreed that he was right to be sad, told him that he was valid in his reaction, and he felt nothing but relief for that fact. It was silent for a few seconds, the two just taking time to breathe and sit in each other’s comfortable company.

“I know it’s a bit much to ask so soon after all this happened, but I had something I’ve been wanting to ask you for a good while, Tommy,” Wilbur started, hesitancy dripping from his words. “I never asked because I had always assumed you were moving to Brighton with Tubbo, but . . . you know how I’m moving to La Jolla after the road trip is over?”

“Yeah . . .?” Tommy replied, unsure of where this was going.

“Well, I’ve already got a place worked out and it’s got a few bedrooms. It’s right near the ocean and I think . . . do you want to move in with me?”

Tommy froze, gaze moving from the dark ceiling of his bedroom and traveling down to where his phone lay near his leg. He watched for a few moments as the seconds the call had been going on went up, up, _ up,  _ as he tried to respond to the question.

“Are you serious?”

“Of course I am, Tommy. I’d love for you to move in with me!”

Tommy sat up on his bed and grabbed his phone, feeling energized for the first time since his call with Tubbo. He turned speaker mode off and brought his phone up to his ear as he began to pace the length of his room.

“I mean, I’d have to sort out a visa to live there, which would definitely take a few months, and I’d also have to ship my stuff ahead, like my PC. I’d need to work out plane tickets and talk to my parents, but I’m sure they-”

“Is that a yes?” Wilbur asked, voice hopeful.

“Yes!” Tommy exclaimed, nearly jumping for joy. “We’re gonna be roommates! Look at us, Wilbur𑁋 we’re like brothers!”

“Don’t say that or I’ll cry.”

~

“Welcome to the stream, boys!” Tommy shouted, eyes flitting over to his other monitor and watching as the chat flew by. He hummed along to the song playing, only interrupting it by taking a sip of his Coke.

“‘What’s with all the boxes?’” Tommy read aloud, managing to catch a few of the chat messages. “I’m moving! Big man is finally leaving the nest! It took me longer than I expected it would, but I had lots of shit to sort out.”

He paused, leaning closer to the camera. “Seriously, though, why is moving out so hard? There’s too much work! It’s fucking hell, man!”

After a few more minutes of talking to chat, Tommy logged onto the Dream SMP. There was no serious lore going on, just him walking around and messing about. He was interrupted not too long into his stream by somebody joining the VC. 

“Hello, Tommyinnit,” Wilbur greeted in an overly formal voice.

“Wilbur! My friend!” Tommy exclaimed. “How are you? How are you?”

“I’m doing quite well, Tommyinnit. I hear you’re moving.” There was a hint of mischief lurking in Wilbur’s tone, though it was nearly unrecognizable to the chat. Tommy noticed, however, feeling excited over him and his brother figure knowing about where he was moving when the viewers didn’t.

“You say that like you haven’t been on Facetime with me over the past few days to keep me entertained while I pack!” A quick glance over saw the chat racing by, all excitedly talking about moving and his interactions with Wilbur.

“I would never willingly talk to you outside of a stream, child.”

“I’m eighteen, motherfucker! Stop calling me a child!”

Tommy couldn’t wait for them to have these petty little fights in person.

~

It wasn’t long after Tommy had ended his stream that he received a private message over discord.

_ Tubbo: ur finally moving???! _

_ Tommy: yeah it's taken a while but thats bc i had to work some stuff out _

It wasn’t technically a lie, he  _ was  _ moving. It was just that he wasn’t sure how to tell Tubbo that he wasn’t moving to Brighton.

_ Tubbo: whats ur address?? ranboo ans i could help u unpack!! _

_ Tommy: you guys dont have to help me! ive got someone to help me :P _

Another not-lie. He  _ did  _ have someone to help him, though Tubbo probably assumed it was his parents.

_ Tommy: i actually dont remember the address rn but ill get back to you _

That was a full lie. Tommy had the address fully memorized, having studied it over and over again after Wilbur had sent him a text containing it. He hadn’t even stepped foot in the place yet, but he already knew it was going to be perfect.

_ Tubbo: alrighty! just let us know when we can visit :D _

_ Tommy: sure thing, big t _

He would tell the two roommates in Brighton when they could visit, but he doubted they’d be able to visit his new home as soon as they thought they would.

~

“What do you think?” Wilbur asked as he and his new roommate stepped through the door.

Tommy was mesmerized by the apartment, standing just past the foyer and looking out over the main areas of his new home. It was an open concept, so the kitchen room, living room, and dining room were all relatively connected, though they did occupy their own spaces. It was by no means a full on luxury apartment, but it was sleek and modern. It already felt like home to him, even if he had just stepped over the threshold moments ago. He had seen the place over facetime calls with Wilbur, but it was nothing like being there in person.

“I love it. I love being here,” Tommy answered, turning around to face his brother. Wilbur broke out into a large smile.

“C’mon, let’s go to your room! I already put all the boxes you shipped over there, except for the ones with you streaming set up,” Wilbur rambled, lugging one of Tommy’s suitcases down a hallway while the boy followed with the other luggage. “There’s one office where I set up my own streaming stuff, but there were two guest bedrooms so I converted one into your own office! Feel free to decorate your office and room as much as you want as long as you don’t make us lose our security deposit.”

Wilbur interrupted his little monologue to open a door and lead Tommy inside. The room was relatively plain, walls painted the same color as the hallways and a bed with no sheets on it. There was a bedside table with a lamp, a door that presumably led to a closet, and a dresser, but that was about it. Throughout the room were several cardboard boxes, presumably holding all of the things Tommy had shipped over beforehand.

“I know it’s a bit bare at the moment, but obviously I wanted to leave it up to you how you decorated it. I figured it’d be fun if we-” Wilbur was cut off by Tommy throwing himself at the man, wrapping his arms around him. Wilbur returned the embrace, holding his little brother close.

“I love it, Wilbur,” Tommy reassured him. “I’m really happy you asked me to move in with you.”

“I’m happy you agreed to move in with me,” Wilbur whispered.

So there the two pseudo-brothers stood, hugging in an empty bedroom in their new home, a whole new era in front of them.

_ 1. _   
Tommy had settled into his new home well, taking the days after he had arrived to unpack and decorate. His setting up was sporadically interrupted by Wilbur forcing him out of the house to go see the beach or take him around La Jolla, often insisting he take Tommy to a restaurant he likes. The two easily fell into the role of roommates, so quickly that it was like they’d lived together their entire lives.

That’s not to say that it didn’t come with difficulties. Most notable was the fact that the two had very different sleeping schedules. For an eighteen-year-old YouTuber, Tommy actually had a relatively normal sleep schedule, which is why he often didn’t appear on late night streams (Though, it had been easier to come to his friends’ late streams, seeing as he was now in a very different timezone, not that they knew that. It was a lot easier to show up to Quackity’s stream starting at 12am EST when it was only 9pm for him). Wilbur, on the other hand, was happy to go to bed at five am and not wake up until noon. It was just a bit inconvenient for them, seeing as one would be awake and have to be quiet while the other was asleep. This, of course, led to some lighthearted arguments.

Tommy groaned as he was awoken by shouting down the hallway. He groaned and rolled over in his bed, glancing over at his phone only to discover that it was nearly three am. That meant he had only been asleep for less than three hours. He buried his head into his pillow, hoping he could just tune out his roommate and go back to bed, but quickly found that the method wouldn’t work. With a sigh, he got up from his bed, taking a moment to stretch out his lanky limbs, and resigned himself to go to Wilbur’s office and tell him to  _ keep it the fuck down because some people in this house actually have normal fucking sleep schedules, dickhead. _

He shuffled down the hallway and the shouting only got louder the closer he got to the office. Light spilled out from the crack under the door and Tommy blinked a few times to adjust to it. Finally, he knocked on the door, knowing Wilbur would call out to say he was streaming or let him know if he was on call with someone who was live. When he received a confused “come in,” he burst into the room, finding Wilbur taking off his headphones and turning around to face him.

“Ey, dickhead!” Tommy said, keeping his shouting down as much as he could without full on whispering. His voice was still raspy from just waking up. “Some of us have normal fucking sleep schedules! I’d appreciate it if you’d maybe shut the fuck up before we get noise complaints.”

“Did I wake you up?” Wilbur asked, looking a bit sheepish.

“Did you- yeah, you woke me up! You probably woke half of California up, Wil! I bet Eret is awake right now because of you.” Tommy let out a sigh and collapsed on the couch that was set up on one side of the room.

Wilbur laughed, seeming a bit less remorseful about waking the boy up as he began cracking jokes.

Suddenly, from the headphone, the two roommates could hear someone ask, “Is that Tommy?”

“Oh shit,” Wilbur muttered. “I forgot to mute.”

“What is Tommy doing with you?” another voice asked.

Wilbur sighed and looked over at Tommy, silently asking permission. Tommy got up from the couch and nodded, coming to stand up behind Wilbur’s chair. The brunet unplugged the headphones and turned his camera on. It took a second to load up, but soon the screen showed the two roommates.

The other two participants of the call also turned on their camera and Tommy finally found out who was on the call, that being Quackity and Jschlatt. The two men were at varying levels of shock and confusion, staying silent and just staring at them.

“Uh, hi,” Tommy finally greeted, giving a small wave to the two.

“Tommy, I thought you were moving,” Quackity spoke up. “What are you doing with Wilbur?”

“It’s kind of a funny story, actually,” Tommy replied. “Because, uh, I moved here and I’m living with Wilbur now.”

“Didn’t you and Tubbo have that whole fucking plan to move to Brighton, though?” Schlatt questioned, brows furrowed in confusion. 

Tommy shifted from one foot to the other, looking slightly uncomfortable. “Well, we were going to, but then . . .” He looked to Wilbur for help.

“Tubbo bagged on getting a flat with Tommy so I asked if he wanted to move here with me. I mean, I’d been wanting to ask for a while, but I still thought they were moving in together up until then,” Wilbur quickly explained. The air grew tense as the two took in the words and looked at Tommy, who was avoiding their gaze.

“I’m totally coming to visit you guys when I’m up in California next!” Quackity exclaimed. Both Tommy and Wilbur broke out into wide smiles, agreeing wholeheartedly with the plan.

After a few minutes of talking, Tommy seemed to remember why he came into the office in the first place. His tiredness came back full force and he let out a yawn, rubbing at his eyes a bit.

“I’m going back to bed,” he announced during a lull in the conversation. “Please be quieter so I can actually sleep this time around.”

Wilbur promised he’d be quieter and all three wished the boy goodnight. Once he was gone, the three jumped back into their conversation, though Wilbur was sure to keep his voice down.

_ 2. _

When Technoblade had learned that Wilbur had moved to California, he hadn’t reacted much at first, giving a simple “cool” and then moving on. It wasn’t until later that he realized that  _ he also lives in California.  _ After coming to that realization, Techno decided that he needed to visit Wilbur at some point, seeing as they now didn’t live too far away.

Wilbur, of course, had given his friend the address without hesitation, promising that Techno could drop by whenever he wanted and was always free to spend the night. Though he appreciated it, Techno had never taken his fellow Sleepy Boi up on the offer.

It was really an impulsive decision to go and visit Wilbur. It was a Saturday and Techno had been rather bored when he remembered the fact that his friend lived not too far away. Remembering that he was allowed over whenever, Techno packed a small overnight bag, put Wilbur’s address into his GPS app, and got driving. The drive, luckily, wasn’t too long.

Soon enough, Techno found himself a few floors up in a nice apartment building, walking down the hallway to his friend’s apartment. Taking a deep breath, and hoping Wilbur would be chill about his impulsive visit, he knocked on the door.

~

Tommy had been tired lately. He didn’t even realize that moving away from home to go live in a different country, taking a few days to unpack, and then immediately throwing himself back into streaming and recording videos would be so tiring. He had thought he was fine— really, he had!— until a few weeks into living in La Jolla he had woken up with a cold.

“How did this even happen?!” Tommy rasped out in frustration, laying on the couch and staring up at the ceiling. “It’s not even cold here!”

“Sometimes you just get sick, Tommy,” Wilbur comforted, kneeling down beside the couch and offering the blond a cup of tea. Tommy sat up a bit and adjusted himself so he was sitting up against the pillows. He took the tea from Wilbur and began to sip on it, relishing the relief it brought to his sore throat.

“Will you be okay on your own if I go out to buy some medicine?” Wilbur asked. His voice was dripping with concern.

Tommy waved him off. “I’ll be fine, Wil. It’s just a cold.”

Wilbur nodded and stood up, seeming relatively convinced. He disappeared down the hallway and came back a few minutes later, fully dressed and ready to go.

“Don’t die while I’m gone,” Wilbur reminded his brother as he grabbed his wallet from the table near the door and stuck it in his pocket.

“I’ll try my best,” Tommy responded with a smile.

With that, Wilbur left Tommy alone in the apartment. The blond set his tea down on the coffee table and went back to lying down, closing his eyes and allowing himself to doze off. At least if he was sleeping then he didn’t have to deal with how much he felt like shit.

Tommy didn’t know how long he drifted off for, but he was broken from his half-sleep by knocking. He groaned and forced himself to rouse, glaring at the door as if it had offended him. After a few seconds, whoever was on the other side knocked again. Tommy wondered for a moment if Wilbur had forgotten his keys, but then remembered that the man would probably shout through the door for Tommy to let him in if so. 

The third time the knocking sounded, Tommy forced himself to get up and stumble over to the door. He leaned heavily against the wall once he got there, feeling rather lightheaded. Using only one hand, Tommy unlocked the door and swung it open.

~

The last thing Techno expected when the door finally opened was to see Tommy standing in front of him, looking dead on his feet. The teen had bags under his eyes and his hair was a mess. He just stared at Techno with his mouth a bit agape, as if completely incapable of comprehending the situation he was in. After just a few seconds, the door was slammed in Techno’s face.

Techno found himself just as shocked as the teen, only able to stare at the wooden door as he attempted to understand what had just happened. He waited a few moments before eventually knocking again, realizing he was just standing awkwardly in the hall of a random apartment building. Tommy opened the door tentatively, shuffling his feet and avoiding eye contact.

“I’m, uh, here to see Wilbur,” Techno managed to get out, clutching the straps of his bag tighter.

“Oh, yeah, I figured,” Tommy replied, taking a step back and opening the door wider. “Come on in.”

Techno stepped over the threshold and into the nice-looking apartment. He took a moment to observe the space, noting certain aspects. It was clean, he realized, and relatively modern, but it had a homey feel to it. He caught sight of a sweatshirt he recognized as Tommy’s slung over the back of a dining room chair. There were dishes in the sink, waiting to be cleaned, and the pillows on the couches were astray. He nearly tripped over a small pile of shoes by the door, but was lucky enough to save himself from that embarrassing fate.

Behind him, Techno heard Tommy shut the door and lock it. The boy shuffled past him and made his way over to the couch, slumping down and leaning against an armrest before grabbing a mug off of the coffee table and taking a sip from it.

“Make yourself at home,” Tommy told him, waving vaguely to the rest of the living room. “I would offer tea or coffee, but I feel like shit and don’t have the energy.”

Techno shuffled over to the other couch, which was adjacent to the one Tommy was curled up on. He sat down and set his bag by his feet before beginning to fiddle with his fingers. The two were silent, both unsure of what to say to each other.

“So . . .” Techno finally spoke up, breaking through the uncomfortable atmosphere, “where’s Wilbur?”

“He’s out getting cold medicine right now since there isn’t any in the house,” Tommy answered easily, as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

It was decidedly  _ not _ the most normal thing in the world, in Techno’s humble opinion. He, however, had no clue how he was supposed to state that. His eighteen-year-old friend, who was very much supposed to be living in Brighton right now, was curled up sick on a couch in La Jolla, a town that is certainly not in England. He found himself staring at the teen with furrowed brows, watching as he lounged on Wilbur’s couch and scrolled through his phone, occasionally taking sips from his mug.

“What are you doing?” Techno questioned bluntly, never one to mince his words.

“I’m scrolling through Twitter,” Tommy answered, looking up at his friend with a small grin.

“No, I mean, what are you doing  _ here?”  _ he elaborated, vaguely motioning to the apartment around them. “Why are you in California? You never mentioned that you were visiting the US.”

Tommy looked a bit sheepish at Techno’s words, setting down his phone, along with his mug, and rubbing at the back of his neck. His eyes wandered off somewhere else, pointedly looking everywhere except at Techno.

“Well, it’s actually kind of a funny story,” Tommy started, repeating the same words he had said when he explained it to Schlatt and Quackity. “You see, I told everyone I was moving, but I didn’t exactly mention  _ where  _ I was moving to and, uh, I just so happened to be moving here. Surprise?” He put his hands up a bit as if presenting something on the last word, an awkward, nervous grin adorning his face.

When Techno didn’t respond, the smile dropped off of his face and his hands fell back into his lap. They were both silent, waiting for the other to say something,  _ anything,  _ and dissipate the tension in the room. Before either could speak up, however, the sound of the door unlocking from the outside was heard and suddenly Wilbur was walking in.

“You didn’t die while I was gone, right?” Wilbur asked rhetorically, locking the door behind him and taking off his shoes all while not looking at the living room once. He threw his keys and wallet into the bowl on the small table that sat in the foyer. “If you died, that’s gonna be really hard to explain to your parents and I would rather not have-”

Wilbur cut himself off as he turned around to face the living room. He took in the scene in front of him, Tommy sitting on the couch (a sight he was very used to after weeks of living with his brother) and Techno on the other couch (a sight he was very much  _ not  _ used to and not expecting to see that day). Unsure of what to do in the situation, Wilbur did what he did best: use humor to cope.

“Was I not taking good enough care of you?” Wilbur asked Tommy lightheartedly as he approached the couches. “Did you fucking call Techno to come take care of you while you’re sick? He doesn’t know how to care for sick people! I went out and got you medicine, like a good roommate, and now you’re going out and betraying me? Traitor!”

Tommy rolled his eyes at the man’s antics, batting Wilbur’s hand away as the brunet attempted to ruffle his hair. “He just kinda showed up.”

Wilbur looked to Techno for an answer, sitting down next to Tommy and letting the sick teen lay against him. He handed the blond the paper bag that held the medicine he had picked up from the drug store and Tommy uttered a quiet ‘thank you’.

“You gave me your address a couple months ago and said I could come visit whenever,” Techno explained. “I didn’t have anything going on, so I was like ‘oh, I should go visit my good pal who moved only a couple hours away from me!’ but I get here and knock on the door and who answers except the child.”

“I resent that statement, bitch!” Tommy attempts to exclaim, but his sore throat makes it come out much raspier than intended.

“Rest your fucking voice before you lose it completely and can’t stream for even longer,” Wilbur reminded him. Tommy pouted, but stayed quiet.

Wilbur turned his gaze back to Techno. “Well, I’m happy you came to visit me! Sorry I didn’t exactly tell you about all this before.”

Techno waved off the apology. “It’s all good. I was a bit surprised, but it’s honestly not that surprising that you two moved in together, always on your ‘brother’ bullshit.”

“Don’t call us brothers,” Tommy told him with a mischievous smile. “Wilbur will cry.”

_ 3. _

Tommy didn’t know what to do. He was completely frozen, staring at his phone that was sitting on the kitchen counter. He’d just been having a late lunch, which meant standing in the kitchen and eating a cold slice of leftover pizza, when his phone had begun to buzz. When he peeked over at it, he found that he had an incoming Facetime call. That wouldn’t be too bad on his own, except for the fact that it was Ranboo that was calling him. Tentatively, he set his pizza down on the counter, unable to tear his gaze away from the phone.

After a very tense minute, the phone stopped buzzing. Tommy only had a second of relief, however, before he was getting another Facetime call from Ranboo. Hesitantly, he reached out, grabbing the phone off the counter and pressing the accept button. In the seconds it took to connect, Tommy looked at himself in the box that showed his video, only to discover that he looked so obviously anxious that there was no way Ranboo wouldn’t pick up on it.

“Hi,” Tommy muttered quietly once the call finally connected. He could barely bring himself to look at Ranboo on his screen.

“Tommy,” Ranboo greeted with a more monotone voice than usual.

They were both silent for a few moments.

“Listen,” Ranboo finally said with a sigh. “You’re my friend, so I’m going to be blunt with you. Why are you ignoring Tubbo?”

Tommy ran a hand over his face and rubbed at his eyes. “It’s complicated.”

“But it doesn’t feel very complicated.” Ranboo’s calm, even tone made Tommy want to cry. “You moved months ago and yet you haven’t told Tubbo your address so he could visit and you haven’t been texting him back lately.”

“It’s a long story,” Tommy elaborated vaguely, much to the older teen’s irritation.

“Tubbo misses you.”

“I miss him too.”

“Then why don’t you text him? We all live in the same city. If something’s wrong, then you can meet face-to-face and work it out.”

Tommy walked over and pulled out one of the stools at the kitchen island, sitting down. “It’s not as simple as that.”

Tommy knew Ranboo was a rational person, knew he was sympathetic to the plights of others. That’s why he had played a mediator role in every friend group, making sure people could work out their arguments in a civil way instead of letting things stew for so long that relationships are completely destroyed. The only problem was that Tommy didn’t really have a civil way of settling this, seeing as people’s feelings were going to get hurt no matter how he put it.

He didn’t blame Ranboo for the situation, not even in the slightest. There was a good chance the brunet was completely unaware of Tubbo’s original plan to move in with Tommy, or perhaps he had been told that the two had mutually agreed not to become roommates. Technically, the two  _ had  _ mutually agreed, but more in the sense that Tubbo had made the decision and Tommy was too hurt, too shocked, too broke up about it to do anything except agree and try to move on.

Tommy hadn’t even done a great job of moving on, seeing as he had spent the week following the call with Tubbo just moping around the house and ignoring all of his friends. He hadn’t tried to get out of his rut or work through his emotions, instead electing to isolate himself as some sort of defense mechanism. Of course, he hadn’t accounted for the fact that he had friends that would notice his absence and do everything they could to reach out to him. Wilbur had been especially worried after not hearing from his pseudo-brother for so long and was nearing the point that he was willing to catch the next flight to England from whichever city he was in just so he could go to Tommy’s house and check up on the boy. Luckily, they didn’t reach that point.

Either way, Tommy could feel the crushing weight he had felt that week begin to press down on him again as Ranboo attempted to work out his and Tubbo’s issues, seemingly behind Tubbo’s back. He wanted to explain, or maybe he didn’t, but he had no clue how to explain how much he had been affected by the entire situation and only able to ignore it by leaving for a different country and telling nobody (besides his parents and Wilbur) where he had gone to.

“Why can’t it be that simple?” Ranboo asked.

Tommy opened his mouth to explain, or perhaps to deflect the question, but was interrupted when footsteps came down the hall and Wilbur was suddenly in the kitchen, heading over to the fridge.

“What’s up, Toms?” he asked, focused on searching for whatever food he was looking for.

Tommy tore his gaze away from Wilbur and looked down at his phone, watching as Ranboo’s face morphed into confusion. Quickly he looked away from the phone too, avoiding eye contact with the brunet on the screen.

“Is that Wilbur?” Ranboo questioned, which caught the aforementioned man’s attention. Wilbur closed the fridge and turned to Tommy, seeming to notice that he was on a call. “Why are you with Wilbur?”

Tommy chuckled nervously. “You see, that’s the part where it’s not so simple.”

“I- what?” Ranboo questioned, voice dripping with bewilderment.

Tommy glanced over at Wilbur, who looked somewhere between concerned and upset, before turning back to his phone. “Well, uh, back in March, after Tubbo said that he . . . ya know . . . didn’t wanna get a flat with me, Wilbur asked if I wanted to move to La Jolla with him after he was done with his road trip.”

“Hold on for a second𑁋 Tubbo said you both agreed that you didn’t want to move in together last December and that’s why I agreed to move in with him!” Ranboo’s tone was verging on upset and a bit of guilt bubbled up in Tommy’s chest. “He said you mutually decided on that.”

“It was less of a mutual decision and more like Tubbo saying that he thought they wouldn’t make great roommates,” Wilbur elaborated, walking around the kitchen island to stand behind the stool Tommy was perched on.

“That’s . . .” Ranboo trailed off, unsure of how to phrase his next words. “That’s a jerk move. I mean, he’s still my friend, but it really wasn’t okay of him to do that.”

Tommy didn’t respond, but Wilbur nodded in agreement with the younger man’s statement.

Ranboo let out a small sigh. “I’m sorry I sorta jumped to conclusions there. I didn’t know he had out right ditched you. You honestly have every right to be mad at us.”

“I’m not mad at you, Ranboo,” Tommy insisted. “It wasn’t like you knew about it. It’d be dumb of me to blame you when you didn’t know the reason I’ve been ignoring Tubbo.”

The awkward tension in the air had lessened considerably and the conversation began to devolve into much lighter topics. Tommy actually found himself enjoying the call, glad he was able to catch up with Ranboo and remember just how much fun it was to talk to him. Wilbur stuck around for a bit before heading out, announcing that he was going to go hang out at the beach. The two teens decided to speak for a little longer after he had left.

“You won’t tell anyone that I’m living with Wilbur, right?” Tommy couldn’t help but ask once he found the conversation winding down. “Only a few people know, and everyone except my parents only know by accident.”

Ranboo nodded immediately. “Of course! I won’t tell anyone anything if you don’t want me to.”

The two said their goodbyes and promised each other they would stream together sometime soon, which they hadn’t done in months. When the Facetime ended, Tommy leaned back a bit and looked up at the ceiling, finding that he felt lighter than he had in months.

_ 4. _

Tommy had declared it to be the “funniest Minecraft mod ever,” when he proposed it to Phil, Wilbur, and Jack. Of course, the three were well aware that he said that about every single Minecraft mod they had used in the past two years. Still, they all agreed to do the video, though not without lighthearted complaints.

It was a mod that allowed players to ride pretty much any animal in the game, and it was extremely easy for the group to make several humorous bits out of it. Philza had been excited about the idea of attempting to beat the Ender Dragon while riding an animal, so their goal was to make it to the end.

Currently, however, they were in the overworld. Philza was looting in a village, Jack tagging along with him. Meanwhile, Wilbur was attempting to catch a cat to ride, Tommy watching from afar while sitting on the wolf he had managed to get onto the back of. They were all in a VC together, laughing as Wilbur vented out his frustrations about being unable to catch the cat.

“The cat keeps running away from you, Wilbur!” Tommy wheezed. “Like every woman ever!”

Phil and Jack laughed, Wilbur remaining silent as his avatar ran after the cat.

“Women don’t run away from me,” Tommy continued. “Women love me! I, unlike you, have not been rejected twenty-seven times.”

The call went silent, a small chime letting them all know that Wilbur had muted himself. Tommy knew in that moment that he’d gone a bit too far, and his friends seemed to know it too.

“Uh oh,” Tommy whispered, as he heard footsteps coming down the hallway and remembered that he lived in the same apartment as the man he had just insulted. Phil and Jack waited in anticipation for the moment Wilbur unmuted, but it never came. Instead, they suddenly heard the loud  _ ‘bang!’  _ of a door opening from Tommy’s end of the call.

“Come here, you fucking gremlin!” Wilbur shouted, more muffled as he was far away from the mic. It was punctuated with a few thumps.

“Wilbur, I’m sorry!” Tommy exclaimed, but the words were surrounded by laughter coming from both of the brothers.

“I am going to punt you into a lake!”

“I said I was sorry!”

Phil clicked out of Minecraft and opened Discord, clicking onto the call and turning on his camera. Jack was quick to do the same, and the two gave each other looks of equal confusion as Wilbur and Tommy’s muffled shouts continued in the background.

“Let me out of the chokehold, you prick!” Tommy yelled, though his voice was lighthearted, and it was followed up by a thump. Everything went silent for a second, before Tommy shouted again. “What the fuck was that for, dickhead?!”

“You said to let you out of the chokehold,” Wilbur defended, a smug tone in his voice.

“I didn’t mean you should drop me onto the floor!” Tommy got up from the floor and looked back to his set up, only to see on one monitor that Phil and Jack had their cameras on in the Discord call and were looking confused. Of course, Tommy hadn’t turned his camera on, but he knew that they had heard the lighthearted fight.

Tommy turned to Wilbur and gave him a look and the man nodded, leaving the office and closing the door behind him. Tommy sat back down in his desk chair and put his headphones back on, waiting for Wilbur to get back to his computer. Once Wilbur unmuted, both he and Tommy turned their cameras on, looking equally sheepish. Not to mention both were a bit flushed from the small fight and the shouting.

“What the fuck?” Phil asked, eyes flitting between the two video call boxes.

“I second that,” Jack muttered.

Phil looked as though he was attempting to understand what had just happened. “Are you two in the same house?”

Tommy and Wilbur only nodded.

“Why?”

The two waited for a few seconds, but Tommy was the one who eventually spoke up. “We’re roommates.”

“Roommates?” Jack repeated. “As in, you live together?”

“That’s generally what roommates mean,” Wilbur joked.

“Since when?!” Phil couldn’t help but exclaim.

“Well, Wilbur asked if I wanted to move to La Jolla with him back in March𑁋 we agreed I could move in after I finished college𑁋 and then I spent the Summer figuring out visas and shit. In August, I finally shipped my bigger things over and then flew over with my suitcases,” Tommy explained, laying out the rough timeline.

“Since August?!” Jack replied, shock seeping into his tone. “It’s October now!”

Phil looked a bit sad at the realization his two friends had been staying together for such a long time. “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“We meant to!” Wilbur promised. “We just kinda . . . forgot to? We just never got around to it, I suppose.”

“Sorry,” Tommy apologized to the two, fiddling with his fingers.

“It’s okay,” Jack reassured. “But it’s cool you two are roommates! I’ll have to visit sometime!”

Phil nodded in agreement. “I’ll have to come see you guys too, maybe when Kristen and I are visiting her family in the states!”

Tommy agreed eagerly, and Wilbur was happy to go along with it.

~

The world was dark and quiet, as it often was in the early hours of the morning. Wilbur had always enjoyed this feeling, the semi-solitude of the night. It had been different in England, where the noises of the city always seemed to rage on, never giving him a sense of serenity in the hours that were meant to belong to him.

That was part of the reason he had moved to La Jolla𑁋 it was much quieter. Sure, it was still loud during the day, tourists and residents alike soaking up the sun’s rays, but the nights brought calm to the city. He often found himself on the balcony off his apartment’s living room, quietly closing the sliding door behind him so as to not wake Tommy. He enjoyed the hours he spent, sitting on the plastic chairs and staring over the railing to the beach.

That’s where he was tonight, watching the waves lap against the sand and allowing the sound of the water to soothe him. The moon reflected off the water and created just enough light that he could see the sand relatively clearly. In the distance, he could hear faint chatter, likely coming from people enjoying late nights on the beach, but he couldn’t see anybody from his balcony view. It was refreshing, the quiet solitude.

His peace was broken when his phone began to ring, pulling him away from his calm trance. With a sigh, he pulled it from his back pocket. He had planned to just send the call to voicemail, but stopped when he realized that it was Phil who was calling him. His face pinched in confusion as he stared at the screen, but he accepted the call and brought his phone up to his ear.

“Phil?” he asked aloud in place of a proper greeting.

“Hey, mate,” Phil responded quickly, and Wilbur couldn’t help but note the anxiety in the older man’s tone.

“Is everything okay? It’s only, like, nine am over there.”

Phil let out a sigh that made the brunet’s chest spike with worry. “Everything’s fine. It’s just . . . is Tommy okay?”

Wilbur’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Last I checked before he went to sleep, he was fine. Did something happen that I don’t know about?”

“No, no, I just . . .” Phil sighed again. “I suppose he just seemed off when he was talking about how he moved in with you. Like, he seemed excited, but also upset, in a way? Maybe I’m just overthinking it, but . . .”

Wilbur’s shoulders slumped as he realized what was going on. He figured Phil must not have connected the dots, considering the older man had definitely been aware of Tommy’s original plan to move in with Tubbo.

“Well, he wasn’t really planning on moving in with me at first,” Wilbur started, prompting a confused hum from Phil. “He had that whole plan to move in with Tubbo, remember?”

“Yeah, wasn’t he going to get a flat in Brigh- Oh.  _ Oh.”  _

“Yeah . . .”

“And Tubbo got a flat with Ranboo,” Phil said quietly, finally beginning to piece it all together.

“I didn’t ask him to move in with me because I felt bad,” Wilbur explained, now that he knew Phil understood the situation. “I always thought it’d be cool for us to be roommates, considering we’ve referred to each other as brothers and such, but I always thought he was going to move to Brighton. I asked him if he wanted to come live in La Jolla after he told me what happened.”

Wilbur could almost see Phil nodding slowly and pondering his next words.

“Is it wrong for me to be a bit mad on Tommy’s behalf?” Phil wondered aloud.

“I don’t think so,” Wilbur responded to the rhetorical question. “I was mad too. Hell, I’m  _ still  _ mad about it. They had been planning it for over two years, only for Tubbo to ditch the plan only months before it was set to happen.”

Phil hummed in understanding and Wilbur could feel the man’s irritation even over the phone. Still, both of them remained calm. It was silent between them for a few seconds, neither knowing what to say.

“I’m glad he moved in with you,” Phil finally piped up.

Wilbur let out a breath and leaned back in his chair, staring out at the moon reflecting off of the gentle waves. “I am too.”

_ 5. _

Tommy didn’t know what he was doing on this call. It was a little before midnight and he was in a VC with Dream, George, Sapnap, Quackity, Karl, and BadBoyHalo. They were preparing for Quackity’s late night stream, where they would be playing Jackbox. Still, Tommy didn’t really know why he was there. The Feral Boys had invited him to play with them, along with BBH (though that wasn’t too weird, since Bad was an honorary member of the group). What was weird was how they invited Tommy and nobody else that was outside of their little group.

It wasn’t as if Tommy wasn’t close to all of them𑁋 the people in the call were some of his closest friends!𑁋 but he wasn’t exactly a recurring guest on their Jackbox streams, usually only there if one of the other Sleepy Bois was also invited. Eventually, his curiosity became a bit too much, so he opened up his private message thread with Quackity.

_ Tommyinnit: hey quick question _

_ Quackity: yeah? _

_ Tommyinnit: why am i here? _

_ Quackity: what do u mean?? _

_ Tommyinnit: im not usually a part of feral boys streams?? _

_ Quackity: well now that youre living in the states i figured it could pull u into more of my late night streams since it isnt early in the morning for you _

_ Quackity: plus chat is gonna love the feral boys interacting with you!!! _

_ Tommyinnit: okay yeah thats fair _

With a solid answer, he turned back to the call, where the group was messing around. They all had their cameras on and were chattering about whatever came to mind. Tommy interjected wherever he found a place to, usually mocking somebody or making a friendly jab. Finally it quieted down a bit.

“How’s your new place been, Tommy?” Karl asked, drawing everyone’s attention to the eighteen-year-old.

Tommy was suddenly paying more attention, having been made the center of the conversation. “Oh, uh, it’s been good! I really like the apartment and it’s been nice to stream and record in an actual office as opposed to my bedroom.”

“I still half expect your mom to yell at you to do your dishes half the time,” Dream joked, jabbing at the teen’s youth. Everybody laughed, Tommy even cracking a smile.

“I’m a big man now!” Tommy insisted, giving a glare with no real heat behind it. “Ain’t nobody gonna interrupt my streams now!”

As if on cue, there was a knock on his office door. Tommy froze, realizing everyone on the call heard it. The group stared at him in a bit of confusion, but Quackity had a knowing smile on his face.

“Give me a second,” Tommy told the group in a hurry, he swiveled around in his chair to stand up, beginning to take off his headphone, but didn’t even fully get up before the door swung open completely, the wood hitting the door stopper attached to the wall.

“I got us takeaway!” a familiar voice announced. The group over the call was greeted with the sight of Wilbur Soot walking into Tommy’s office with a paper bag in one hand, raised up into the air as if it was a medal. The group looked at Tommy on the screen, finding that the blond seemed unimpressed as he turned to fully face Wilbur.

“We had dinner earlier,” Tommy responded with a deadpan tone.

“Doesn’t matter!” Wilbur declared shoving the bag into the teen’s hands. “I went out and got us food anyways.”

Tommy rolled his eyes, but a grin spread across his face and Wilbur could see he was thankful for the food. He knew it had always been draining for the blond to keep up his persona while streaming, so the moment he knew what time the late night stream was, he made sure to go grab food beforehand so his roommate would be able to keep up his energy.

“Hello!” Wilbur greeted the members of the video call, crouching a bit so he was more eye level with the computer. He gave them a small wave before standing back up. “I’ve gotta go, since I promised I’d call Techno tonight. Have a fun Jackbox stream!”

“Tell Techno I say hi!” Tommy called after him, to which Wilbur gave an affirmative before exiting the office and closing the door behind him.

Tommy turned back to his desk, setting down the paper bag and beginning to open it up to see what was inside.

“Uh . . .” Sapnap piped up, breaking the silence. “Are we gonna talk about that?”

“Yeah, I’m a bit curious about that too,” Dream added on. Bad, Karl, and George all nodded in agreement. Quackity, on the other hand, just looked smug about the fact that he already knew what was happening.

“You guys know how it took me a good while to move?” Tommy questioned the group, looking up from the bag. They all nodded in confirmation. “That’s because I was working on getting a visa to live in the states and also shipping all of my things over.”

“So you’re living with Wilbur in California?” Karl piped up.

Tommy nodded. “Yep! Wilbur asked if I wanted to come live in La Jolla with him and I said yes. Now we’re here!”

“Hah! I already knew!” Quackity bragged, making Tommy smile.

The group fell silent, unsure of how to proceed with the new knowledge.

“So, what food did Wilbur bring you?” Bad finally asked, trying to move the conversation forward and past the awkward point.

Tommy was happy to turn his attention back to the paper bag, opening it up and pulling the food from inside. He quickly explained to the group that it was from a little Chinese restaurant in town that Wilbur had come to love. Everything became less awkward from there and it was all back to normal, much to everyone’s relief. Tommy began to eat while Quackity went on deafen and started his stream.

~

Around fifty minutes into the stream, they were playing Patently Stupid. They had already done a couple rounds of Quiplash, though they probably would’ve made it to a game other than Quiplash quicker if they hadn’t spent so much time messing with each other at the beginning of the stream. Now, however, they were all presenting their ideas.

“Here’s my problem,” Dream announced. “I am sick of living in England!”

Tommy buried his face into his hands, already having an idea of where this was going. He peeked through his fingers to look at the screen share video on Discord, watching as the name of his invention popped up on screen.

“Just move to the United States!”

The group howled with laughter, Tommy trying his best to join in so as to not tip off to chat that something was wrong. Dream’s drawing popped up on screen, and it was of a stick figure with fluffy hair standing next to a crudely drawn American flag. The Feral Boys’ laughter had not died down, Dream even wheezing despite it being his presentation. He clicked the button for the tagline to appear.

“‘Florida? California? Doesn’t matter! Just get the fuck out of England!’” Dream read off of the screen. Tommy knew he had likely thrown in Florida as a double jab at George.

The chat figured he was referencing George, Eret, and Wilbur, seeing as they were all Brits who had moved to the States, but everyone in call was completely aware that it was referring fully to Tommy, who was glaring at the screen despite knowing none of them could see him. His phone buzzed and he looked down only to see a text.

_ Wilbur: L _

Tommy decided that he was going to fight Wilbur the next time the two were in the same room.

_ +1 _

Anxiety mixed with excitement in Tommy’s chest as he set up everything for his stream. His hands were shaky with nerves, but that didn’t stop him as he got his camera into the correct position and pulled up OBS. It comforted him to know that Wilbur was in the office right down the hall with Discord open and ready to join a VC. The two had it all planned out, or, at least, a general plan of what was going to happen in the stream.

Taking a deep breath, Tommy hovered his cursor over the ‘Go Live’ button for a few moments before actually pressing it. He had titled the stream ‘Meet My Roommate!’ and sent out the notification. He was muted on his stream while his ‘Starting Soon’ screen was being displayed and he opened up twitter to let people know.

_ TommyInnit @tommyinnit _

_ COME MEET MY ROOMMATE!!! _

_ twitch.tv/tommyinnit _

He set his phone down and looked at Discord pulled up on his other monitor. He jumped into VC2 and waited, watching as the viewer count skyrocketed. After a few minutes, he switched it from the ‘Starting Soon’ screen to his face cam.

“Hello, chat!” he greeted. “How are we all doing today?!”

He switched between humming along to the background music and speaking to the viewers, reading out messages every once in a while. The chat was racing by, making it nearly impossible to catch any of the messages, but they were almost all asking questions about his roommate.

“Jesus, you boys are really excited to meet my roommate!” he exclaimed. “Well, luckily you’ll get to soon! I’m gonna give you a bit of backstory first.”

“So I was planning to move out basically the moment I finished college, but then I discovered that moving is a much more complicated process than I expected it to be. This shit took me all summer to figure out, as well as packing and such. Not a fun experience, would not recommend it in the slightest! Luckily, though, chat, my new roommate was extremely helpful with the process. He started living in this apartment before me, though we actually planned to move in together before he actually moved in!”

Tommy couldn’t help but notice how weird it felt to be telling his viewers a story while not playing a game at the same time. He felt like he had no clue what to do with his hands except make exaggerated movements to punctuate his words.

“I shipped some of my stuff ahead and he picked it up and brought it into the apartment, and helped me unpack when I got here! Living with him has been some of the most fun I’ve had in my entire life and-”

Tommy was cut off by the sound of somebody joining his VC, and he already knew who it was.

“Tommyinnit,” Wilbur greeted in an overexaggerated monotone.

“Yes, Wilbur?” Tommy groaned, pretending to be irritated.

“I think you’re acting like me.”

Tommy glanced up at the camera as if making direct eye contact with his viewers and showing off his confusion. “I mean, we  _ are _ like brothers, Wilbur.”

“Don’t say that,” the brunet replied out of habit. “I will cry.”

A quick glance to the chat let Tommy know that everybody was extremely excited that Wilbur was there. “How am I acting like you?”

“I think you’re lying to chat. I don’t think you have a roommate,” Wilbur elaborated, voice somewhere between teasing and mocking. “You’re making up stories like I do.”

“I have a roommate, dickhead!” Tommy shouted.

“Mhm, sure you do,” Wilbur replied. “I’m just saying that-”

Wilbur didn’t have time to finish his sentence, because Tommy kicked him from the VC. The teen snickered a bit afterwards, proud of having interrupted the brunet.

“This is why I don’t talk to Wilbur, chat,” he said, addressing the viewers again. “Because he’s a fucking di-”

This time, Tommy was interrupted by the door to his office bursting open. The blond took off his headphones and turned around to see Wilbur standing in the doorway, head nearly hitting the top of it. Suddenly, the brunet was racing forward in a blur of color and tackling Tommy out of his chair.

“Fight me, you fucking child!” Wilbur yelled, though his tone was lighthearted.

Neither of the two could see the chat, but they knew that it was most definitely racing by even faster as Tommy escaped Wilbur’s hold and stood back up. The two glared at each other for a few moments, both onguard and prepared to attack.

“Are you done?” Tommy eventually asked.

Wilbur nodded, dropping his stance. “Yeah, I’m done.”

Tommy walked back to his chair and put his headphones back on. Meanwhile, Wilbur grabbed the chair they had placed in the room in preparation for the stream and pulled it up to the desk, sitting down next to the blond. He also pulled out his phone and went onto Discord, joining the VC with Tommy and muting himself; he knew it was likely their friends would join the call to talk to them, but he wouldn’t be able to hear it since Tommy was wearing the headphones, so he connected with his earbuds on his phone to be able to listen but just talk through Tommy’s end of the call so there wouldn’t be an echo. It was a solution they had come up with specifically for this stream.

“Surprise, chat!” Tommy shouted. “Wilbur is my roommate!”

“I’m living with a child now,” Wilbur said in a much calmer tone, prompting Tommy to lightly punch him in the arm. The brunet still looked proud of himself, however.

Tommy watched chat fly by, trying to catch a few messages, and Wilbur appeared to be doing the same.

“Someone just called you a dirty American,” Wilbur laughed.

“I am not an American! I am still a citizen of England and I am only staying in the states specifically so I can make fun of it!” Tommy insisted. “Never refer to me as an American again or face the fucking consequences!”

There was a small chime of someone joining the VC.

“I would like all the viewers to know that I was one of the first two people outside of Wilbur and Tommy’s parents to know about this!” Quackity exclaimed, obviously excited to hold bragging rights.

“You and Schlatt found out about it by accident,” Wilbur specified.

“Now that I think about it,” Tommy added, “I’m pretty sure  _ everyone _ who knows found out by accident.”

Wilbur paused, thinking about it for a second, while Quackity burst out laughing.

“You two suck at keeping secrets!” Quackity wheezed out, and a few more chimes of people joining the call were heard.

“Wait, is almost everyone who found out by accident here?” Tommy asked. “Because everyone should go around and tell the story of how they found out.”

The group seemed to agree and chat appeared to love the idea, so they went ahead with it.

“Schlatt and I found out when we were on a call with Wilbur in the middle of the night,” Quackity explained. “We were all pretty loud, and suddenly Tommy came into Wilbur’s office to tell him off for waking him up.”

“I’m pretty sure his exact words were𑁋” Wilbur put on a terrible imitation of Tommy’s voice “‘𑁋Ey, dickhead! Some of us have normal sleep schedules!’”

Everyone in the call laughed.

“I found out when I came to visit Wilbur one weekend,” Techno piped up. “I knocked on the door, and you can imagine my surprise when Tommy opens the door.”

“How did both of you react?” Dream questioned.

Techno huffed a bit. “He immediately slammed the door in my face.”

Tommy looked almost proud of himself as Techno relayed that fact to the group.

The stories continued on, Ranboo telling the group about how he was on Facetime with Tommy when Wilbur suddenly showed up and they were forced to explain. Jack and Philza then traded off telling them how Tommy made a joke while recording a video, prompting Wilbur to go to the blond’s office and put him in a chokehold (Jack made sure to let chat know that there was, in fact, footage of this, as they had still been recording at the time. Tommy had a feeling he would be pressured into posting the video). Finally, Dream, Bad, and Karl told the group about a call before a Jackbox stream where Wilbur came into Tommy’s office with Chinese takeout. Tommy was sure to drag a screenshot of Dream’s answer from Patently Stupid onto screen, letting the viewers know that it had been a jab at Tommy.

Even though the stream hadn’t been going on for even an hour, it was beginning to wind down. After all, it was really only a stream to tell the viewers that Tommy and Wilbur were roommates, and everybody telling stories of how they had found out was a spur of the moment thing to keep everyone entertained a little bit longer. Soon, however, everyone was leaving the VC and Tommy was saying goodbye to the chat, thanking them for coming.

Tommy knew that after the stream was over, it would be time for the hard part.

~

“Hey, Tubbo,” Tommy greeted quietly as he answered the Discord call. Tubbo had his camera on, so Tommy turned his on too. He hadn’t left his office after the stream, aware that he would definitely be talking to Tubbo afterwards.

Tommy found himself almost regretting rejecting Wilbur’s offer to stay with him for the call, but he knew he had to do it alone. If it got too much or he needed help, he knew Wilbur was waiting in the living room just in case, and that brought him some comfort.

“Hi, Tommy,” Tubbo replied, just as quiet.

It was silent, and Tommy looked at the screen as he watched Tubbo avoid eye contact with him.

“So . . . you moved in with Wilbur, huh?” Both of them already knew the answer to that question.

“Yeah,” Tommy responded anyways. “He already had an apartment sorted out and was going to move in after his road trip, so he asked me back in March if I wanted to move in with him.”

“Did he ask before or after . . . ?” Tubbo trailed off, but Tommy knew he was referencing  _ the  _ phone call.

“About a week after.”

Tubbo nodded a bit, taking a bit to process the information.

“I’m sorry I’ve been ignoring you for months.”

Tubbo shook his head. “You don’t need to apologize. I should’ve realized sooner why you were ignoring me. I mean, we had a plan and I completely ruined it just because I felt like we weren’t as close anymore. In the process, that only made us drift even further apart.”

“Yeah, it was kinda shit of you,” Tommy told him with a faint grin, as if cracking a joke. Tubbo finally faced the camera and gave a watery smile back, tears shining in his eyes.

“I wanna be your friend again, Tommy,” Tubbo admitted. “I fucking miss you a lot. Ranboo is one of my best friends, but I also miss being best friends with you.”

Tommy fidgeted with his fingers a bit, looking uncertain. “It’s not gonna be easy, you know that, right? I mean, we haven’t talked in months. It’s gonna be a difficult process to get our friendship back where it used to be. Are you sure you’re up for that?”

Tubbo’s shoulders slumped a bit, but hope gleamed in his eyes. “I’d go to hell and back to regain this friendship. I know it’s gonna take a lot of work and reconciliation, but I’m up for it. That is, if you’re up for it too.”

Tommy smiled, a real genuine smile that gleamed. “C’mon, when have I ever not been up for something?”

“Do you want that list in alphabetical or chronological order?” Tubbo asked in a teasing tone.

The two burst out laughing, and it almost felt like old times.

~

_ Two Months Later, January _

“My dirt shack!” Tommy cried out as he watched the little dirt shack he had built be sucked up by the tornado. Only a few seconds later, Tommy’s avatar was also blown upwards by the winds.

“That’s why you should’ve stayed in our underground stone house!” Philza laughed.

For the two year anniversary of the Natural Disaster Mod video, Tommy had decided he wanted to try the mod again. He had invited all the same people, but also invited along Ranboo, who had happily agreed to join. Ever since that Facetime call the two had, Tommy and Ranboo had been much closer, often appearing in each other’s streams and being featured in YouTube videos together. Once Tommy had started appearing in videos and streams with Tubbo again, the three became a dynamic trio that was seen together a lot of the time.

“Don’t worry!” Tubbo shouted. “I’ve got you, Tommy!”

Tommy’s avatar was suddenly getting pulled back down to the ground and towards a mountain. There was a wood door on the side of the mountain that Tubbo opened up and pulled Tommy through before closing it behind them. Tommy turned his character to look and saw that Tubbo had pulled him down with a fishing rod. Then, he looked around to see Ranboo, who had apparently mined in the side of the mountain to create the little house. 

“You’re a fucking life saver, Tubbo!” Tommy exclaimed.

“I was the one that gave him the fishing rod,” Ranboo muttered, but it was obvious that there was no malice behind the words.

It had been a hard process to get where they were, and they were still working on it, but, as Tommy watched Tubbo’s avatar jump up and then proceed to crit Ranboo, who immediately shouted at him for doing so, he knew that working on rebuilding the friendship was the right decision.

“Let me in!” Jack Manifold shouted as he joined the VC. The three teens turned and watched the man’s avatar run through the door before closing it and boarding up the mountain house with cobblestone blocks.

“What happened?!” Tommy asked. “Is it the tornado? Are you traumatized now? We can be your therapists!”

“No, Wilbur was just trying to kill me!”

Tommy, Tubbo, and Ranboo all turned their avatars to face each other before turning back to Jack’s character. With a silent agreement, the three raced forward and immediately started fighting the older man, killing him in only a few seconds.

“I can’t believe you three!” Jack cried out.

Tubbo, Tommy, and Ranboo only laughed as Wilbur joined their VC to celebrate the death of Jack, who had likely joined the VC Phil was in to complain about the teens.

Yeah, everything was okay.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you thought!


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